The Morning Light
by AsianScaper
Summary: Anakin has to deal with his feelings for Amidala when her life was threatened by an assassin. The first of two parts. Please read and review!!!
1. Default Chapter

**Title:** _The Morning Light: Part 1/2_   
**Author:** al'Laine Aranielle id Larq   
**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the characters and I'm not making money out of this so please don't sue me. Star Wars, its characters, and everything else in between, belong to George Lucas...I think.   
**Rating:** G   
**Category:** Drama   
**Feedback:** Friends, enemies: Send your comments or constructive criticism to allaine003@hotmail.com. Please be nice. This is my first fanfic.   
**Summary:** Anakin has to deal with his feelings for Amidala when her life was threatened by an assassin. The first of two parts. Please read and review!!!   
**Spoilers:** None that I know of...   
**Archiving:** =) I'd be honored to have this posted wherever you fellow fans wish. Though, I'd appreciate it very much if you could drop me a line and tell me where it's at.   
**Dedication:** To the Star Wars community and to my friends in school. Have a great summer! Trinnie, I just posted all of them again to add this itty bitty part to it ok? You don't have to read them all again.   
**Author's Note:** trin_chardin!!! YOU DON'T HAVE TO READ ALL THIS OR REVIEW IT FOR THAT MATTER!

***

The rays of the dawn lanced through the pillars of the Imperial Palace. Amber shone like the light of the heavens, reflecting the sun's saffron colors unto the marble that divulged the same hue. The light littered the halls and one could see dust motes fly with the breeze like stars against their blanket of darkness. Through the open-air palace where the wind settled and blew without restraint against ceilings fifty meters in height, a figure sheltered by robes of brown walked through the halls as if he were a king in his palace. His strides were long and purposeful, full with the strength of youth, deliberate with the confidence of maturity. But one could see the child in his blue eyes and the changes that had molded his face with scars of hardness. Frailty could be seen in but small quantities for his gaze was intense and his jaw was set in a tight frown.

How could a man, in such a brilliant morning, look so?

He walked on, with that thought hidden at the back of his mind like a talisman to be summoned. Oh, he had so much to learn. The boy, for that was what he was, did not falter from his march across the hall. He did so with almost blinding speed and with the exuberance of his age.

As the sun cast his shadow through the halls, they were reminders of an ephemeral Time where all things had ends. For Anakin Skywalker, he knew that his shadow would glance the walls of the Imperial Palace no more and that the pain his heart felt was beyond the brilliance of the sun, nor of the shadows that burrowed deep in the pillars of Naboo.

It was only he who was watching himself undo his own walls and those strides echoed the treading of a man so eager to die...to sleep.

Then, as if the strength in him had stopped with the wheels that composed his mind, he hesitated and drew a hand from his robe, the dust motes avoiding his touch. His legs gave way and he reached out to an amber pillar more than twice his size. It reminded him of his own insignificance in the universe and, to make his own revelations worse than they already were, his hand made a thudding sound, the same way a man who was shot with a rifle resounds when he contacts the ground. It was hollow with the emptiness of death. And suddenly, he was wracked with sobs summoned from the depths of a soul severely wounded from the wiles of Time itself.

"Anakin." It was a deep voice, commanding, endearing, so young and naïve.

Anakin Skywalker, his deep blue eyes shining like the sky when the sun was at its zenith, met his mentor's gaze. Obi-wan Kenobi offered a frown and for a brief moment, he was a mirror of the boy leaning against the pillar of Life.

"Get up, Anakin. You look like a fool." The boy did, merely bowed his head in surrender. "Get up, I said!"

Anakin's mask melted and his eyes closed, copying perhaps the fate that was already catching up to him like a disease. "What has gotten into you?" Kenobi's voice demanded.

"I...Master, I..." And he could not continue. He stared at Obi-wan, his eyes devoid of life. "Why did they have to...? They...they..." The wall that he had built broke with the force of a Master's touch on his lightsaber and his feelings overflowed, touching his eyes to shed tears. He stumbled to Obi-wan, clutched his Master's robes and soaked them with liquid diamonds that expressed more than just the feelings that had grabbed him from behind. The halls that had once echoed laughter now resonated with cries so unfamiliar that they danced against them with vivacity.

Obi-wan lifted his eyes to the heavens perhaps in prayer; he touched the boy's head and held him close in an embrace.

"You hang in there, young man," Obi-wan whispered. "You have so much to learn; I do not need you to fall apart, now of all days."

The boy, his robes mingling with that of his Master's, held Obi-wan an arm's length away, his head bowed, those tears staining the marble which, not so flawless as it had been, still shown a blinding yellow.

"I want you to...to...to..." His face contorted in silent pain as another wave of sorrow attacked him from the abyss of his soul. "I-I can't live like this. I can't live like this, knowing that..." Anakin fought down the urge to shed more tears and barely succeeded when he uttered these words, "...that I almost killed her..." How his words trembled! How his breath came so short! How he hungered for air and for more than just air! How he hungered for the life of another age, of another time!

"It was not your fault, Anakin!"

The boy looked up, the blueness sparkling from the deluge of tears. "I would give everything, do anything, to take her pain away! I would rather die a million deaths than see her like this! Do you know how it feels like?" he demanded with more intensity than a star that had died in a supernova would. "I love her! For goodness' sake, Obi-wan, I love her!" And he rocked back and forth, sobbing like a lost child, crying as if the last drops of hope had been spilt. 

Obi-wan Kenobi did not know what to say. He knew; oh gods he knew, that Anakin would someday fall for the child-Queen. But she was not a child, he constantly reminded himself. To Anakin, who had dedicated more than time to her, she was the North Star to his wandering bark. She was the flame that fed the fire of his soul. She was the goddess to her brethren, the air that he breathed. And now, now that star was vanishing from the heavens, he could not see the sea before him nor the rest of the monsters that lay on his path. But this same knowledge that had been endowed upon Obi-wan, was an invisible hand that wrought considerable pain to both the Queen and Anakin himself.

He knelt beside the boy, put a hand across his back that wracked with moans, and said, "She will be all right, Anakin. You know her strength. Have faith in her. I pray you, have faith in her."

"I do. The gods know I do." His voice was so soft that Obi-wan had to strain to hear him. He bent lower, touching the floor that, by now, would have been as cold as the boy's soul. "But it is not her strength that I doubt, Master. It is my own." 

In time, with the movement of the sun, Anakin's tears ceased and he stood up, wiping the manifestation of his anguish with the sides of his robes. He stood with an unlikely frame of solidity, standing an inch taller than Obi-wan, his smile grim but his eyes showing, as a window to a soul would, the man who stood against a window pane with tears that flowed like the rain outside. 

He hides his pain well, Obi-wan lamented.

"You may want to see her now."

Anakin looked away, towards the east where the clouds had cleared to show him the skies. "What do I tell her?" He did not wait for an answer and instead, looked his master in the eye. "Master, thank you."

Obi-wan smiled. "Of course." They shared a moment of silence when suddenly, Obi-wan chose to speak. "It is not the time and place to love, Anakin."

Anakin Skywalker's lips slipped into a smile. "You, too, have a lot to learn, Master. Love prevails in all things. Even Time." And he stepped away, towards the room that was the Queen's.

***

**-The End-**


	2. The Morning Light: Part 2/2

**Title:** _The Morning Light: Part 2/2_   
**Author:** al'Laine Aranielle id Larq   
**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the characters and I'm not making money out of this so please don't sue me. Star Wars, its characters, and everything else in between, belong to George Lucas...I think.   
**Rating:** G   
**Category:** Romance   
**Feedback:** Friends, enemies: Send your comments or constructive criticism to allaine003@hotmail.com. If you find anything remotely displeasing, do tell!   
**Summary:** Amidala watches as a distressed Anakin comes to pay his respects. The last of two parts. Please read and review!!!   
**Spoilers:** None that I know of...   
**Archiving:** =) I'd be honored to have this posted wherever you fellow fans wish. Though, I'd appreciate it very much if you could drop me a line and tell me where it's at.   
**Dedication:** To the Star Wars community and to my friends in school. Have a great summer! Trinnie, I just posted all of them again to add this itty bitty part to it ok? You don't have to read them all again.   
**Author's Note:** I would be very grateful for any insights; if you see any grammatical or spelling errors, feel free to point them out. I'm new at this so I'd appreciate your generosity when it comes to tips and stuff like that.

***

If words were proper for the beauty, perhaps, of a sunset, then words were simply the ground one treads on when that ivory face turned from the sight of distant mountains covered in their quilts of snow. She might have reminded him of things past, of things present, of things come to be, but the air she breathed and the presence she endured, was the same perforating zephyr that blew from every measure of liquid falling from the great heights of waterfalls that never seemed to end. The view beyond her drapes of silk provided this endearing spectacle, never leaving its loft in the recesses of her mind.

She was, in every minute detail, the embodiment of all he ever wanted to be, of everything he had ever yearned for. And the intensity of that gaze, older perhaps that his, was filled with the wisdom of fortitude for nearly every possible pain. She radiated the command of a general who had, not once, been defeated in his cause but had felt the very thorns of a distant debacle that never seemed to pass. She was a Queen, not a child, and in her eyes, despite the many years that clothed whatever youth may have existed, the world had become far more cruel than that evil force who tempted the pride of man.

Anakin Skywalker, the watcher, the beholder, could not tear his gaze from the woman, for that was what she was, enveloped in disquiet and concern. He did not bother to knock, did not need to, and stepping against the cold marble that perhaps, had turned his heart to ice, he approached the foot of her bed. Her room was open in all sides and this space invited the breath of the angels, the breathe of the heavens, that gave life to the room and its inhabitants.

She had noticed his footfall not moments before and her face, which one would think was blanketed by a thick pallid night, summoned all the gods of the heavens to bedeck her with light. Her happiness was evident but the veil that Anakin had taken to wearing, prevented him from seeing the joy that lit every corner of her appearance.

He was punishing himself, Amidala knew.

"My lady," he greeted, his voice bejeweled with pain. Kneeling, as was proper for a subject to his queen, he had trouble looking her in the eye. It did not seem much that he could not face her, but indeed, the shame he felt was far more superior to the sorrow one could see in the way his brow furrowed, in the way those lips were set tightly against each other, in the way he trembled despite the rising heat.

"Stand, Anakin. You do not have to act so formally around me."

It pained her to see him in such a state. Although it was not his treatment of coldness towards her that nearly drove her mad, it was the very whips that he had taken to scourging himself with. The whips that were, in a sense, his guilt.

"My lady..." he began, almost choking, almost faltering with the anguish that seemed to overflow the dam of raw emotions.

Despite the burn that sizzled incessantly at her side, despite the sanguine blood that stained her head, she felt her heart become even more troubled than her body.

The tale had been simple. Anakin Skywalker, a friend to whom even her most innermost feelings were now hidden from because of her inability to express them in proper words, had abandoned every Jedi duty to accompany her to one of her councils. It had not been easy for both of them. Seeing a Padawan and the Queen together, both quite young and engaged in quiet conversation, was enough to turn the head of every able leader in Naboo. Not that his Master, Obi-wan, had not perceived this small...dilemma. In fact, the Jedi Knight had encouraged Anakin's participation. It seemed though, that certain parties were not pleased.

In the view of her very protector, an assassin had unraveled the rifle, shot her before his very eyes, and almost killed her with a blow to the head. Anakin was beyond rage. He convened all that he ever learned in a millisecond he thought never happened, and proceeded to cudgel the man who threatened the person thing that meant most to him.

She had seen the fury in his eyes, the blood that masked every sign of humanness. She had to touch his shoulder to prevent him from murdering her assassin in cold blood. She had fainted in his arms as she did so as blood cascaded from a gaping shoulder wound. He had shed tears despite himself and Obi-wan had been there to behold it.

How could one woman have such a profound effect on a man? Now, she watched the boy who had not only befriended her heart but her very soul, and rose from her bed despite the agony of wounds inflicted on her body not long before.

He gave a start at the pained look on her face, almost stood to reach out for her, to help her, but she raised a hand, offered a wan smile, and approached him. He swallowed and concern overshadowed his face in great waves of distress.

"Amidala, you shouldn't..."

"Shhh," she whispered, taking his chin and cradling his face with hands softer than the breezes that swept past the mountains of Naboo.

It was a moment shared in mutual silence and they stared into each other's eyes, savoring perhaps, a moment meant to end with the passage of the predator called Time.

From afar, one would think this a scene from a fairy tale come to life as Anakin knelt, his eyes doing a strange mellow caper in the sunlight and as Amidala's long, unbound hair fell forward to his face like an ebony waterfall rushing down the smoothness of rocks hewn by the passage of epochs upon epochs.

And the moment lasted for an eternity, until even the spokes of Time deadened and disappeared and each knew, that despite the flaws, the enmities, the very many jealousies, there were only two to the boat that rolled against the tide of time and space.

***

**-The End-**


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